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Fifty Kenyan athletes will be suspended for doping, shortly, as reported by various media.
Sarah Shubutse, CEO of the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya allegedly said, “Over 50 athletes will be put on a list of shame at the end of this month for violating anti-doping rules.”
This is a historic number of athletes to be suspended who hail from a single country. While Russia has had a nationwide ban, it was due to systematic doping, not necessarily every athlete was tested and proven to have doped.
Speaking in Kapsabet, over the weekend Shibutse indicated that improved testing and involving a multi-agency approach in their fight against doping has yielded results.
“Still needs to be done,” she added.
She observed that some athletes have become wary of the heightened fight and have decided to lie low.
“At the end of this month, we will sanction numerous athletes across — part of our strategy in fighting the vice as we prepare for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. We want to send clean athletes to the Olympics to avoid the shame the nation has received in recent major championships,” said Shibutse.
Shibutse also warned athletes against running away from doping control officers. She called it an exercise in futility since they would still get sanctioned for failure to provide samples.
“We are now getting to know their (athletes in hiding) information. We are gathering information about their training camps, their coaches and their managers,” she said.
Currently, there are approximately 70 Kenyan athletes who are currently serving suspensions for doping. And if not doping, repeated missed tests (whereabouts failures, three times in 12 months), Athlete Biological Passport anomalies, or manipulation.
